Punknews.org FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

At the end of the day, the label a band is signed to does not matter at all. However we don't feel that a band's label should be completely transparent. Hard working, dedicated music lovers staff many labels we deal with and we’re proud to give them some recognition.

As for the whole major vs. indie battle... it doesn’t really concern us. There are honest and dishonest people working for both types of label. Of course, we would still love to see small business prosper as opposed to large shareholder-profit concerned conglomerates, so we admit some bias exists.

Nothing is as black & white as some famous zines make things out to be. Not every independent label is as fiercely DIY as Dischord or SST, and not every major contract is as abusive as the one CBS had with The Clash. Basically we're not going to tell you what to like or who to support: If you refuse to deal with a label, by all means skip the related articles and concentrate on others. Make your own choices.

If we have enough news from a given label we'll usually give it an icon. The labels don't pay for it, nor do they have any control over what news we post. It's just to give the label some recognition.

Want an icon? Email us. If you truly think your label has the volume of information to have one, we'll gladly put one up for you. It's a free service.

No. Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion owns Epitaph. It isn't owned in any part by Sony or Warner Bros or whatever other rumour you choose to believe. Yes, it’s a successful and constantly growing company, but regardless it is still an independent label.

No. Fat Mike of NOFX and his wife Erin Burkett own Fat Wreck Chords. Yes, it’s a successful and constantly growing company, but regardless it is still an independent label. Despite the trendy “anti-Fat” sentiment of the late 90s, they’re incredibly respected for how well they treat their bands.

No. Interscope does own a non-controlling share of Vagrant, but they're still majority owned and operated by Rich Egan.

Agh! The questions! Lots of labels have some degree of a relationship with various major labels, we can't keep track of it all. By all means, if it concerns you, email someone from the label and ask. These connections are usually not secrets. In most cases (like Fueled By Ramen) you’ll find that the “major connection” is usually nothing more than a contract deal for a few bands and involves no ownership or control at all.

The issue is probably not one of preference, but one of size. For example, if Label-X has 25 active bands, they'll have more news than Label-Y with 10 active bands, who'll have more than Label-Z with 2 active bands.

It also has a lot to do with how active the label is in sending us press. If a label sends us weekly updates, they’ll obviously get more news posted than a site we only hear from every other month (or not at all).

If you mean that the volume of major label news is up, I can tell you its not something we persue. The number of major label articles increases and decreses as the number of punk bands signed to majors increases and decreases. We try our hardest to post about all sorts of bands, reguardless of label, within the realistic confines of a maximum 10-15 stories a day.

If you're refering to the new major label topics, those are simply for the archive use and reader awareness. The archives are easier to search when the topics are more specific and the new graphics hopefully inform the readers of the chain of label ownership. The news volumes of the new topics should add up to the volume of the single old major topic.